IBM is killing the human brain and the majority of the people think it's a game!
Computers could soon work like the HUMAN BRAIN: IBM unveils groundbreaking new PC chip architecture
- New programming architecture will allow developers to design applications for brain-like chips that are currently in development by IBM
- Chips could lead to machine that have capacity for perception and thought
Scientists believe we are one step closer to creating an artificial mind.
IBM has announced a new programming architecture for chips inspired by the human brain.
The company claims the chips could pave the way for smart sensor networks that mimic the brain’s capacity for perception, action, and thought.
The new programming model is dramatically different from traditional software. IBM said the model is tailored for a new class of distributed, highly interconnected, parallel, large-scale cognitive computing systems
One day, it could allow computer scientists to develop a machine with a brain that is even more intelligent than that of humans.
IBM’s said its new programming architecture will allow developers to design applications for these brain-like chips once they released.
‘Architectures and programs are closely intertwined and a new architecture necessitates a new programming paradigm,’ said Dr Dharmendra Modha, the principal investigator for the project at IBM Research.
‘While complementing today’s computers, this will bring forth a fundamentally new technological capability in terms of programming and applying emerging learning systems.’
The computers we use today were designed decades ago for sequential processing according to a pre-defined program.
The chip’s memory functions as synapses would in the brain, the processors as neurons and communication as nerve fibers. These chips attempt to replicate and improve the brain’s ability to respond to biological sensors and analysing vast amounts of data from many sources at once
Although they are fast and precise ‘number crunchers,’ our computers struggle to deal with real-time processing of the noisy, voluminous, big data produced by the world around us.
In contrast, the brain- which operates comparatively slowly and at low precision- excels at tasks such as recognising, interpreting, and acting upon patterns.
Overall the brain, consumes the same amount of power as a 20 watt light bulb and occupying the volume of a two-litre bottle.
IBM has been awarded $12 million in new funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to advance the research
In August 2011, IBM demonstrated a building block of a novel brain-inspired chip architecture based on a scalable, interconnected, configurable network of ‘neurosynaptic cores.’
The chip’s memory functions as synapses would in the brain, the processors as neurons and communication as nerve fibres.
These chips attempt to replicate and improve the brain’s ability to respond to biological sensors and analysing vast amounts of data from many sources at once.
To achieve this, the researchers developed a highly scalable functional software simulator of a cognitive computing architecture comprising a network of neurosynaptic cores.
Alongside this they created a digital neuron model which acts as the main information processing unit.
The company claims that within this, a network of such neurons can sense, remember, and act upon a variety of different situations.
IBM, in collaboration with Cornell University and iniLabs, has been awarded $12 million in new funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance the research for this part of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project.
Read more